Tales of a Darker Power
by You're All So Vacant
Summary: My pen-name used to be milesreminisence.  Continuation of the Reckoning. Multi chapter fic - what happens when they go on the run  again  and then join a school? R&R
1. Band On the Run

**A/N **– Hmmm, right ho. Time for some of my ramblings. This fic is planned to have a good few chapters, and leads on right from the end of The a chlerek pairing, some others may be mixed in later on. This is unlikely to be complete fluff, as I want this to actually have a plot of some kind. Unlikely to have many lemons as well, as the 'sex anywhere' style of writing sort of takes away from a story (If you get what I mean). Rated T, for now, if it changes later I will put in alternate parts for those unwilling to read lemons. But don't worry everyone, for that will not be in the near future ;)

Enough of my rambling that has probably made many of you find me to be highly illiterate, on with the story

**Prologue Chapter 1 – Band on the run**

Chloe P.O.V

_Previously: I was safe. I was right where I wanted to be._

Famous last words. Well, almost. Jinxing ones anyway. Half an hour later, when Derek and I finally dragged ourselves back to the hotel, the door to our rooms refused to open.

"Locked." Derek muttered.

"No, you don't say." I drawled back, still in a relaxed state from our surprising calm walk, kicking the door lightly.

"Shhh." Apparently he disapproved of me bullying a dead tree. He literally moved me out of the way- standard Derek behaviour. Then I noticed what he really had objected to me kicking. There was something taped to the door, a piece of paper and an envelope beneath it, both of them slightly muddy from my shoe.

"Sorry." I whispered, suddenly alarmed into near silence. Maybe something had happened to the others?

"'s okay," Derek mumbled, slightly distractedly. There was an improvement. Normally he would have already started shouting about drawing attention to ourselves via a door kick. I thought he was being unusually mellow, and, sure enough, a well-timed 5 seconds later, a hushed "Fuck" resounded down the dark, empty motel hallway, probably disturbing the owners of said shoddy motel. Their faults for making the building resemble aluminium tin.

I pulled the first piece of paper from his hand, that wasn't the one he has looking at anyway. A line-art sketch of a van, with a simple tally of 6 inside the box. Then a picture of a ghosty from Pac-man, 2 dogs and a magic wand. Finally, in the corner, what looked like a condom wrapper.

Any other time, I would have laughed. But clearly the message was serious. I translated it to – 'Playing it safe. There are other supernaturals in the area. There is nothing wrong at the moment, but we are headed to the van. Just in case.' I breathed a sigh of relief before reaching towards the envelope, which appeared to have several pieces of paper in. Derek was completely fixated on one in particular but because of the height difference and where we were standing, I couldn't reach it. Jumping onto tiptoes, I leant forward to see, and Derek, finally remembering that I was there with him, handed me the pieces of paper, scrutinising me as I started to flick through them.

The first seemed to be an old note from Gwen. Dated a week ago, it was all written in blood, and stated two words- 'can't trust'. It was signed simply with a letter G at the bottom. Slightly unnerving, but not at all explanatory, so almost totally unhelpful, I moved it to the back.

Next was a dirty laminated sheet that gave the motels nightly charges- that was on the door from the beginning, so I ignored it, and turned to the last page. Well, scrap and it was barely a quarter of an A4 page.

A picture of me. Again. In a newspaper. Again. Not because I had been spotted, but because my Dad was offering a reward, again. Very repetitive, my life. Live somewhere, move, get into some problem, move, get into the news, and move. Like a loop. The next stage of the loop had already been confirmed by Simon. Move.

Derek was staring, not having moved as much as a millimetre since he handed over the information. Waiting for confirmation.

"Lets' go then." Obviously the correct order to give him, as he smiled slightly before pulling me down the hallway, down the creaking, muddy and rancid smelling staircase, and into the car park.

? P.O.V

She was just walking around, next to the werewolf boy and neither of them sensed a third person, someone following them. I had been following them, precisely four paces behind, right from the woods, and the dumb children hadn't noticed.

Sure, I make no noise, but even humans get a sixth sense, and these teenagers claimed supernatural. I wouldn't count on these two to notice a tornado, they're so unobservant. Unlike me. My job is to observe, to maintain a cover. How disappointing, but no matter. The pair were only proving how easy it would be to dispose of them as and when the Boss desired them dead.

I laughed. These two feeble things would only try to protect each other, which would make both die faster.

Chloe P.O.V (Picking up where we left off)

The van was parked directly in the centre of the car park – clearly Kit's clever thinking. If they were parked as close to the exit as possible, it would annoy other drivers (the car park opening was ridiculously narrow) and would also be difficult for Derek and myself to reach if there was a problem. If they parked right up to the building, it would be easy to reach, but they would risk being cornered.

Overtly cautious for people who considered moving again to be only a precautionary measure.

Derek started towards the van in an almost relaxed manner, so I followed.

The engine was off, which seemed to set us both slightly on edge, but we both knew that in all actuality, it was probably because the van was really loud.

Derek turned slightly, moving his left hand, similar to how you would motion a dog forward. An annoying motion, but his usual one for 'All clear, let's get moving' so I chose not to comment.

I started to follow as he wanted, but didn't feel nearly as convinced of our safety as he appeared to be.

I felt slightly watched, but if we were being observed, then Derek would have noticed, wouldn't he?

A soft laugh. I froze, but Derek didn't. That was a new one. I turned towards the direction of the noise, and almost jumped in shock.

"Shit." I hadn't thought there was actually a person there, just me being 'scared little Chloe, afraid of everything', as Tori would so eloquently put it.

At my curse, Derek stopped and turned back to face me, but I barely noticed it, my eyes fixed on the man.

? P.O.V

I guess I must have pushed my luck by laughing, because the Necro turned around to face me, Derek following in her movements like an extended limb. They outnumbered me, but at least I could see both of them. Being invisible to a wolf was highly advantageous.

"So we finally meet." I attempted my best Darf Vader voice, but at her raised eyebrows, I could tell that my skills were completely wasted on the audience of two, one of which was deaf to my voice. What a shame.

"F-finally meet?" Chloe stuttered slightly. I smirked back at her shell-shocked expression, and that apparently helped her to find her voice.

"Finally meet? I don't even know who the hell you are!" My smirk widened into a broad grin, entirely on its own . The girl looked quite amusing to deal with.

"Profuse apologies miss. The name is Corey." I bowed slightly, tipping my hat. "And you don't want to forget it." I watched with a slightly politer smile than before as her expression morphed into one comprising of disgust and annoyance.

"So, _Corey_, have you got anything to tell us?" She tilted her head to the side, thinking, but it only made her look cute.

"Nahh, just admiring the view."

"Derek doesn't swing that way, so I'm sure admiring is all you'll manage." Derek laughed, but unfortunately for her, so did I. She wasn't going to piss me off that quickly. I had plenty of opportunities to talk, and it wouldn't be my order to drag them to the lab.

Unfortunately, that moment wasn't my opportunity to talk, as the strange device fitted to my belt flashed. It was called a pager, according to the Boss. And it was only used to call me back for information. Not too complicated, I never even had to look at what it said.

"Whoopsies guys. I would love to stay and play, but I am so goddamned whipped, that when the bitch calls, I run." With a final grin and a wink a Chloe, I popped off home, leaving both of the kids looking completely gormless.

Such lovely kids when silent.

Chloe P.O.V

"He's gone, Derek. Been called elsewhere." I sounded relieved, and I was. I thought it would take forever to get rid of him. But the guy left on orders, not even of his own accord. Absolutely brilliant.

"Let's go then. The others are probably wandering why we were standing out here."

Derek took my hand and led me swiftly back to the van.

A/N- A bit slow start, just setting the scene.

Remember: Reviews make me happy, which makes me update!

Also, ghosts probably don't carry electrical equipment, but I think they should have their own version, and spare themselves inconvenience, don't you?


	2. A Twist in my Story

Disclaimer (I forgot this last time. Sorry people): The darkest powers trilogy belongs to Kelley Armstrong, I wish I owned it, but I'm not that awesome. All I own are O.C's, and this plotline, though it does extend from the actual series.

**Chapter 2 – A twist in my Story**

Chloe P.O.V 

As predicted, before we were even in a five meter radius of the van, the back left door swung open, revealing a worried looking Simon who was trying to make us speed up by waving his hands frantically in wide motions. Subtle. Now all of us even _looked_ dodgy.

Derek took the hint and sped up, dragging me too fast for my legs to properly keep up; it must have looked at least slightly comical, for I heard Tori stifle a laugh from the front seat of the van.

In the van, the others seemed to be desperately attempting to keep their mouths shut, and after a valiant effort from both Tori and Simon, Kit decided to break the silence anyway.

"What happened? Why did you stop? We didn't see anything!" He looked confused, far more so than the others, who were more accustomed with me 'meeting' people.

"It's okay. Just a short exchange with some guy named Corey." Kit paled slightly, and action I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't been looking out for any kind of reaction.

Apparently Derek had noticed as well, because he cut in before I had time to open my mouth.

"Do you know him, Dad?" Only slightly accusatory in his tone, I was quite proud.

"Yes, uh, no, ummm possibly." He couldn't have sounded less convincing, and at the glare given by both Derek and myself, accompanied by a mocking snort from Simon, he wisely chose to explain further.

"I knew of someone named Corey a good ten years back, but it is fairly possible that the only similarity may be the name. Could you describe him for me, Chloe?"

I breathed out a sigh as everyone simultaneously turned to face me, even Lauren, who was supposedly driving. I wasn't going to tell her face the front though; it was an incredibly long, straight road with a thirty mile per hour speed limit anyway.

"He was about five foot eight inches tall, quite thin, and blond, with blue eyes. I would guess around forty five, maybe slightly younger." I tried to recall anything remotely distinguishing, but drew very little.

"Oh yeah, he wore a purple hat with a green feather, and had a red and black electronic device attached to his jeans." Possible very unhelpful information, but all that really came to mind.

"Sounds cute." Aunt Lauren looked slightly pink, though we couldn't properly tell as the road had started to curve and she had wisely resumed driving somewhat sensibly.

Kit had almost literally frozen, pretty similar to when Tori or Simon put people in binding spells. This was clearly just shock though. Not good, strange reactions from the two adults of our little group.

"I am going to assume that you both know at least something, so start talking or I'll start cursing."

Tori jumped in, which normally would have been a bad idea, but as they were witnesses to her power, it was a fairly effective threat. Aunt Lauren actually gulped, and Kit cleared his throat to start talking. Smart man.

"He is a telekinetic half-demon, with powers similar to Liz. He was involved in two of the Edison group experiments before they felt that he had fulfilled his usefulness."

He paused for only a second, and that was all it took for Simon to jump in.

"Fulfilled his usefulness? Did his experiments actually completely succeed or did they decide he was a lost cause?"

"He succeeded." They words were a whisper, barely even that, but everyone turned to face Aunt Lauren, who looked distraught, her eyes downcast. It was such a depressed expression that I barely registered that she had parked the van at a turn point.

"Why was that a problem? What was the experiment? Did they find out all they needed to know from him, or was it problematic that they experiment actually worked?"

I felt like I was giving them the Spanish inquisition treatment, but the two melancholy adults were still only giving out few pieces of the jigsaw puzzle.

"You're all not going to settle for the vague explanation, are you guys?" Kit smiled slightly, looking a tad proud for reasons unknown.

"Not a chance, Dad." Derek smirked, an uncharacteristic action, he knew we were finally going to get some proper answers.

There was a moment's pause, like in films to build up the suspense to a maximum level as Lauren got out of the driver's seat, and moved to sit in the back with the rest of us, Tori following close behind.

We all settled in for a long story as Kit stared at the slightly scarred floor of the van and began talking:

"In the Edison groups projects, all of them had and remaining ones probably still do, have two main objectives. To enhance powers and to make the subjects able to control these enhancements. Yours was different, there was a third, and by extension a fourth objective."

I thought of Tori, and started talking before my brain had even fully comprehended this new information, and how Corey could relate to us.

"Inter-racial supernatural breeding and the suppression of the unwanted powers." I muttered it, not thinking, but apparently everyone had heard me anyway.

Derek stared at me, his mouth agape, looking slightly impressed. Whether it was my amazing powers of articulation, what I had informed them of, or if it was that I knew something that he didn't, was anyones guess.

"How did you-"Kit stopped his question noticeably abruptly as I inclined my head slightly towards Tori.

"Never mind about that for now. The idea involved was fairly simple. Two humans are two humans, the only thing that really separates them is their colour and their lifestyle. Really, they are exactly the same. Any male can have a child with any female, and it will rarely matter, and exception being if two humans have matching traits in terms of a disease or something similar.

Supernaturals are different, because every supernatural has a bloodline trait that might not mix with a different one or could be dangerous when combined. I guess the Edison group were basing only on the expectations found in, for example, breeding a horse with a donkey. As you all know, the product is a mule, which is infertile.

Being different branches of human, they knew that wouldn't be the problem with most of the subjects, and that wasn't what they were looking for."

I saw Derek glance in a triangle at Kit, Simon and Tori, and knew that his annoyingly quick brain had already figured them out. He didn't even have that much information to base it from. Now we were on the same page. The one that read 'right now it is hard to decide where Corey fits into all of this.'

I couldn't really dwell on that though, as Kit had resumed his 'story time' session.

"Four people were used to investigate what we called the 'Mule' theory. Only two of which knew what the plan was, and what had to be done. The first test was trying to produce a child from a witch and a sorcerer. Anyone want to hazard a guess why?"

"In a normal situation sorcerers are only supposed to produce sons and witches are only supposed to give birth to daughters." All four of us chorused in the flat way that children give answers in school.

"Correct. So they tried, to see if they could even have children, and if so, what would determine the gender. What do you think happened?" He was starting to sound like a school teacher prodding students to show that they actually knew something, but I answered anyway.

"The result was a witch with extraordinary abilities in both witch and sorcerer magic." A simultaneous reply from myself and Derek. Great minds truly do think, alike. Kit nodded, not at all surprised at how quickly his son had caught onto the gist of it.

"Yes. The experiment was performed using a mix of magic and science, and involuntarily on part of the sorcerer, who didn't know until after the child was conceived. Similar to 'test-tube babies' I guess you equate it to. It was later found that a witch and a sorcerer could have a child normally, and it would still be female, as found in the case of a witch named Savannah Levine, who was a part demon from her mothers' side as well as the witch/sorcerer combo. This had actually occurred way before the Edison group experiment, they just didn't find out about it."

Not a single person in the van looked surprised. Needless to say, the Edison group weren't exactly renowned for being a particularly observant bunch.

"The other experiment was in two parts. Both succeeded. It involved a Half-demon and a necromancer." Derek stared at me, but I was too busy staring at Tori, who, it seemed had finally caught on.

"Who was the sorcerer?" She looked slightly scared, so Aunt Lauren decided to finally put in a helpful input.

"Tori, I'll explain outside. I saw a truck stop a couple hundred yards down the road. We'll grab a coffee so I can explain properly. Okay?"

Tori nodded, and silently left the truck, holding the door for Aunt Lauren, before they both started off down the road.

A/N

Savannah Levine is a character from the Women of the Otherworld series, not of my creation.

The next chapter will be more interesting, I promise.

Please review, ff authors thrive off of them! *Dorky grin*


	3. A Twist in My Story pt2

**Chapter 3: A Twist in My story, part 2**

Chloe P.O.V

I watched Tori and Aunt Lauren leave, wishing I could go with them and hear Tori's story again instead of learning what would presumably be linked to my own history.

Too soon, Simon slid the door shut and all attention turned to me. I stared at my scuffed trainers, and after a long pause, Derek decided to give a helping hand. Literally as well as metaphorically. Probably because Lauren had finally left, taking her scrutinising gaze with her, he pulled me beside him, both arms around me, similar to how I leant on him in his wolf form.

"Are you going to actually tell us about Corey's experiments then Dad?"

"Right." Kit looked at me somewhat apologetically, before turning his head back to the floor to explain.

"Corey's two experiments were for polar opposite reasons, and like with the other male in these specific tests, he didn't know anything until both of the 'subjects' – he muttered the word sarcastically and accompanied it with air quotes- were born."

"The first was purely an idea run from fantasy. It was the wonder and creation of having telekinetic half-demon necromancer hybrid, a boundary between both the living and the departed. At the beginning, it didn't seem to work. The boy, named Matt, seemed entirely powerless. At 16 years old, three years ago now, they accidentally came across the solution, the activation."

"They killed him, didn't they?" Derek sounded slightly bitter, his left hand randomly stroking my hair, his own beginning to cover his eyes. He was actually looking kind of Emo.

"Yes. Well, they tried, but murdering him failed. All it did was activate his strange mix of powers, and those there at the time, claim it to have been absolutely extraordinary."

"He didn't die?" Simon looked as confused as I felt.

"Sort of. It is better described that he started another life. He was injected, all those of the group decided that if people had to die, it should at least be humane. But the boy woke up the next morning, so the next night they tried again, with the same seemingly useless result. It was pointless to keep trying, and they didn't know why they were failing, so they decided to keep him under the observation of two necromancers, a half-demon and the ghost of a witch. A mere week later they found the problem."

"Which was?" Simon. Again. I really wished that he contained a mute button.

"Matt was immortal. Or the closest you could get outside of dumb vampire novels." I was considering informing him of the joys of Interview with the Vampire, but didn't want to deviate off topic.

"He was an unknown being. The Edison group had truly outperformed their goals. He is still perfectly alive and well, of you guys were wondering, and you will all meet him later. Matt can talk to and be seen by all humans and ghosts, he can touch anything and behave with the mannerisms given in each realm, no matter which one he is in. For example he could float around earth if that is what ghosts can do. And in both he can move things with his mind or his hands, his choice."

Wow, that guy must either be really loved or incredibly hated.

"What about the second half of the experiment?" Simon put in. I wanted to know too, so I was actually rather glad he asked.

"Polar opposite plan, as I mentioned before. It was a completely different test, though links to the extended objectives from before. 'Suppression of unwanted powers'. The main idea was to have a child that showed no signs of the demon powers. It worked, in the sense that no-one would be able to tell that the child was part demon, but the powers that were left morphed somewhat."

He nodded towards me, expression grim, while I simply sat there, frozen with shock.

"Chloe." Derek's concerned voice brought me out of my astonished haze. II squeezed his hand before turning back to Kit.

"So you're telling me that I have an immortal brother, a dead father and am part demon." It sounded absolutely insane, but not too long ago, all powers were just a work of fiction to me.

"Uh, yeah." Kit scratched the back of his neck, a display of his awkwardness at the story he had just told. I didn't blame him; on his side of the metaphorical table I would feel incredibly awkward too.

After all, he had just informed a teenager that their previous life had been nothing but fallacy.

Strangely, however, this didn't depress me in the slightest. I felt slightly empty, probably because I was still processing the information.

"Wait a minute Dad; you said her powers had morphed. What's wrong with Chloe's powers?" That demanding tone of his voice. How refreshing it was to hear it directed at someone other than me. Though worrying as it was, I hadn't even thought of abnormalities.

"Nothing's wrong with you, Chloe." He tried to reassure me, even though I hadn't been the one worrying.

"You're just more powerful than anyone had anticipated. As Tori can attest to, the earth will open up when you put the slightest bit of effort into summoning. Also, the Edison group have a theory that if they killed you, you would develop your powers in a way similar to your brother, just without the added element of telekinetic powers. That's a key reason why they don't want to kill you, why they have been aiming to scare rather than to harm."

"But they shot her." Derek pointed out.

"They weren't aiming for vital organs, and I am willing to bet money that it was only done at all in a moment of panic." He sounded very convinced, but like the rest of us, the best Kit could come up with was a mixture of theories and speculations.

"You still haven't explained why my father would be watching us, or why his boss wants us dead in the near future." Kits brow furrowed, and he opened his mouth to articulate a reply, but promptly shut it again when the van door began to slide open.

Thinking that it was Aunt Lauren and Tori coming back in, we all left the door alone, but when it opened, everyone froze in shock. There were three men, including Corey, and judging from the three faces sat near me, they could all see them too.

"I was joking, hon." He smiled at the group, offering a wave as the other two gave a nod and a smile apiece.

Simon waved at them, before actually thinking about what he was seeing.

"Am I meant to be seeing these three people?" He sounded frightened, and I didn't blame him.

Corey laughed, giving a slight bow.

"Yes you are. The Edison 'people' didn't know I was half-necromancer, half-demon. I have the same powers as my son, but optional visibility to the living. It is probably why both my kids have such strange powers." He winked, before pausing to allow us to process this.

"To introduce us properly, my name is Corey. The obscenely tall guy with the black hair is Byron. He is your step-mother, Chloe." This lightened the mood, and elicited a laugh, albeit a nervous one, from everyone, including Byron, who smiled at me and offered his hand.

"It is very nice to meet you, Chloe." I shook his hand, slightly confused, and wondering what supernatural type he was.

"Likewise." I didn't know whether to ask him, if it would sound rude or not. He saved me the trouble of asking.

"Werewolf." He gave a half-shrug. That explained why Derek seemed so tense.

"Are you her boyfriend? It's nice to meet you."

"I'm Derek." He politely shook his hand.

Byron smiled again; seriously, the guy seemed to be incredibly happy.

"I may be momma wolf, but any funny business, and I will bitch slap you."He really did seem to fulfil the gay guy cliché; he made the van seem a lot brighter. At least it wasn't tense and awkward.

Even Derek seemed to like Bryon, because he relaxed back and offered a small smile in response. That was the equivalent a hug from the guy who seemed to detest being near other wolves.

"In case you haven't guessed, the blond hippy wanna-be over there is Matt." Corey introduced the last newbie. Matt was fairly short for a guy, about 5'6 with blond hair falling across one eye, and incredibly bright blue eyes. I could actually see how I resembled him and Corey.

"Hey y'all. It's nice to meet you." He glanced around at everyone somewhat pleasantly.

"Hi." He chorused in response. Seriously, the amount of chorusing and echoing in the last few hours was ridiculous. Maybe we should have all joined a choir.

"I know this is all strange for you lot, so now the introductions are over, I am going to take the guys to meet Lauren and Tori. Give you some time to adjust."

"And decide whether you trust us." Bryon added, smiling at the other wolf in the van.

The three newbies waved as they left the van as swiftly as they had entered, this time with Kit in tow.

"You alright?"

"Yeah, just processing everything." I kissed his cheek in reassurance, an action that made him smile.

"You know what, I think your Dads- both of them- like me."

"Who wouldn't?" I snickered; it was nice to know that there wasn't a fight brewing for once.

"You mean they are actually dating?" Dumb Simon. He seemed to be over enthusiastic at the prospect of another teen, this one 19 years old, joining the group. He must have been to not notice the couple.

"Well they left holding hands." I pointed out. Simons non-observant behaviour was a little amusing.

"I didn't see." He mumbled, though he had been staring at the door long after it had shut.

"Obviously."

When Tori and Lauren rejoined us with the guys, they seemed in high spirits, the red rings around Tori's eyes the only testament to the news she had just received.

She clearly wasn't completely comfortable though, as when the now large group piled into the van, she immediately sat right next to me, keeping less than a centimetre between us.

Kit and Aunt Lauren sat at the front, leaving the remaining seven of us to cram into the seemingly small space at the back. We sat in a shape vaguely resembling a circle, leaving a gap about the size of a rucksack in the centre.

As kit started driving, we all sat in silence, but it was a relaxed quiet, like no one really had anything to say.

After a short while, Simon and Matt both started either drawing or writing in on paper, completely silent and separately of their own accord, but the made it look like a group activity.

Shortly after this, Corey started playing with a red iPod, and in an act of boredom, Byron had started messing around with the feather on Corey's hat, making them look decidedly couple-ish.

Everyone remained in this active silence for almost an hour, and I was almost asleep on Derek when Lauren started talking on a cell phone. In Latin. Or at least I assumed so as that was the word Tori muttered almost immediately after Aunt Lauren started talking.

Tori and Simon both looked up to listen to the conversation, but about five minutes in they both seemed to have given up, and where back to looking at either a piece of paper or the floor. Everyone looked at them for an explanation, but Tori shook her head.

"Neither of us bothered to learn the meaning of the words in out spells, let alone try to take Latin classes. I understood all of about two words."

"Ditto." Simon had already gone back to drawing.

Another couple of minutes of waiting, then the phone clicked off, and Lauren turned to face us, looking positively ecstatic. She mumbled something to Kit, who swore and swerved the van around in a semi-circle. A messy one at that. It was a good thing that the road was mostly deserted.

"We are changing course." None of us knew what the original course had been, so no-one really cared. It seemed that know we had actually devised a plan of some kind.

"Where are we going?" Tori sounded excited, it appeared that she gathered the mood from Aunt Lauren.

"A school." Not a single reply. It sounded similar to the situation we started with; the group home that hadn't been such a homey place after all.

"A supernatural academy with the hundreds of students, quite a few teachers and has been running two hundred years longer than I've been alive." Kit amended. At least it now sounded slightly more trustworthy. Simon laughed.

"Sounds like Xavier's school for gifted youngsters." That made Kit smile.

"Exactly. Nice to know you've all heard of it." He got a unanimous stare from all in response.

"I'm serious. They take under 21's so all you kids are registered, and they have taken myself and Bryon on as instructors. Lauren in registered as a senior nurse. Corey, you will stay with Byron, so your job is not to be seen." We all nodded in affirmation, apart from Tori, who frowned at my new family members. Not that they felt like blood relatives. Just family in the sense that everyone in the van was to me.

"You guys are staying with us then." It was a statement, not a question, but Corey answered anyway.

"Yes. We've been running away ever since the attempted murders and being a group of ten is better for all of us in terms of survival. More fight power." That was true. It made perfect sense.

"We'll be there is about an hour. I know I don't really need to say this, but Chloe, don't summon armies. Well, try not to; I know you don't do it deliberately. Derek, don't tell them you change. Tori, at least pretend to know the words to most the witch spells you are casting."

"Yes sir." I responded, accompanied by Tori's laugh and Derek's nod.

"It's settled then. Act like normal supernatural teenagers in a school, and Corey will be around to arrange meetings and check everyone is okay."

"Yeah. I'll go around every day to check for problems." After collective motions of comprehension, we lapsed back into silence for the rest of the ride.

A/N

Next chapter: Xavier's school for gifted youngsters.

Xavier's school for gifted youngsters= Marvel Comics. X-men

Review please people!


	4. Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters

Disclaimer: I do not own Darkest powers.

**Chapter four – Xavier's school for Gifted Youngsters.**

Chloe P.O.V

The first thing that came to mind was a medieval castle. It was a massive complex of old-looking buildings, two tall ones like turrets on each side, and you had to walk across a bridge to get to the main buildings. It was almost like when you see modern day adaptations of TV. The designer clearly had a very good sense of humour.

I started laughing, which set of Corey and Matt. When Derek looked at me questioningly, I pointed from the bridge to the building opposite, and that was all that was needed for his deep grumble of a laugh to join the mix.

"It's nice to know that the students find the school a joke purely upon entry."A female voice commented as a person appeared next to us.

The woman was about thirty, definitely no older than thirty-five and was incredibly short, around the five ft mark. She was actually shorter than me! But her height didn't diminish the stern expression on her face.

I felt the compelled to explain, and wondered why Corey hadn't already started to. I looked to my left, but all that was there was empty space; I had forgotten that she couldn't know he was with us. That didn't explain why I couldn't see him though.

Not dwelling on it too much, I decided to tell this mysterious woman the truth.

"I'm terribly sorry. I found that the building reminded me a little of a castle." I tried my best to sound contrite and even left out the medieval part; I really didn't think she would appreciate it.

To my utter surprise, her face transformed into an amused smile, an action that made her look much prettier, though also a good few years older. And I had always thought that smiling kept you looking young. Damned lying magazines.

"My name is Miss Harris. I am the head-teacher, or principal, as you guys call it, at this school. Please state your name and type."

"What type are _you_?" Tori had never been particularly good at following instructions.

"I'm a necromancer." She smiled, not at all put off by Tori's attitude; she was probably used to it. Necromancer. That explained Corey's absence.

"My name is Tori, I'm a witch." Everyone introduced themselves in turn, until everyone looked at me; I must have been the only one left.

"I'm Chloe. I'm also necromancer." I smiled politely, and waited for her next instruction.

"Wow, this is our fourth and fifth werewolves, _and_ our seventh and eighth necromancers. It is nice to have higher numbers in classes. Especially when kids who take their powers classes with only a couple of people feel slightly ostracized. I think it's good to make the kids feel comfortable here, and some of them only want to talk to someone similar!" God, give me strength. She was probably one of those people who did the beat bullying campaigns. Everyone knew that they got followed by a piss take bullying of anyone similar to those discussed. Seriously.

She clapped her hands together in an almost childlike manner, before resuming her stern exterior.

"I will show to your rooms, where you will all receive information about the school and the school rules." Without further ado, all of us except Corey – who was still AWOL-, followed her across the bridge and up the stone steps to the building in the middle.

In the building, we walked down a large corridor, through a large hall, and up a winding staircase, that split off two ways at the top. The left was labelled male, the right female.

"The boys are to the left, girls to the right." She explained as if it wasn't obvious.

"Teachers are all in the first building behind. Chloe and Tori, I will get you settled first. The rest of you, stay here and I will be back in a couple of minutes." On that line, she started walking, not even giving Tori and myself a chance to say goodbye. We shared the 'she's weird' look before obediently following in silence.

She stopped fairly quickly, outside of a room labelled 13, which almost made me laugh.

"The sleeping areas are split into four different sections, each in different buildings, and every building has 15 rooms." Talk about OTD. Obsessive talking disorder. I didn't really care about knowing any of this, but being dense enough not to catch on, she continued.

"This is the only girls are with free rooms."

"Lemme guess, before we arrived, there was three spare. Now there are two." I spluttered a laugh as Miss Harris pretty much repeated what Tori had said. The woman really needed a filtering system.

At least she was thorough.

_Finally, _she took out two identical keys and used one to open the door before giving them to us.

"Here we respect the privacy of our students; although the keys will be taken back if either one of you refuses to behave in a sensible and mature manner." She warned, before stepping aside to allow us into the room.

It was fairly large, considering we were in a school, and had one door connecting from the back left of the room. A bathroom, I guessed.

The actual room itself was well furnished, but fell into a pattern of brown, white and black, clearly waiting for the residents to bring character.

"There is an information package and a schedule on each of your beds, and you are free to decorate in any non-permanent way, such as posters or anything else that isn't too much trouble to remove." We nodded, and she made her way back to the door.

"You won't start your classes until tomorrow, however, should you need them beforehand, you will find your notebooks and pens in the cupboard between your beds. Your laptops will be in the bottom draw. They are for working and there is a filtering system. If you have any questions, feel free to ask."

We both just looked at her. It was more than a little overwhelming.

"Okay. Then I'll leave you girls to settle in."

"Thanks." I mumbled, more out of politeness than actual gratitude. She smiled in a way that was probably mean to be kind and welcoming, but it came off a tad false.

Once the door had closed shut behind her, we both snapped into action, having a little snoop around our new room.

I found my way to the bed with the information pack labelled Chloe and was about to sit down, when Tori stopped me.

"Can we switch?" I gave her an odd look. Tori really was strange sometimes.

"Why?" I was prepared for a fairly ridiculous response, like not being able to sleep on a bed that was touching two walls instead of one, or something equally absurd.

"Just because that woman pretty much just told us where to sleep." Ah, just her normal brand of defiance then.

"Okay." I picked up the pile of paper and flopped down onto the other bed.

"How quickly do you think I could remove the filtering on out laptops?" I rolled my eyes. I knew she could do it, and I bet really bloody quickly, but I wasn't going to tell her that.

"Stick with just changing the sleeping arrangements for now."

"Fine." Clearly she knew that it was a fairly stupid idea as she didn't even bother arguing it. Instead, she lay back onto some black pillows and started idly flicking through the booklets.

Two minutes later, and she groaned in an aggravated manner.

"I feel like I'm in a bloody English boarding school. There is a _dress code._" That was something that didn't appeal much to me either.

"How bad?"

"It could be worse, I guess. Black trousers or skirt and a black, navy or white shirt. Same colours for cardigans, jumpers or jackets. No slogans or pictures." Plain and practical. At least Derek would love it.

It was a simple rule, so I guess none of the students really objected.

"We're going to have to find Corey then. So he can tell Lauren or Kit to go shopping. We're both wearing blue jeans."

"And, don't forget, we are currently wearing all that we own."

That was true. The only extra I still had on me was a bank card.

"I go find him later today." She nodded, and turned back to Paper Mountain.

"Everything is in here, no kidding. Eating times, sleeping times, map of the school. Even the rules for leaving the grounds, what times we can leave, and where we can actually go." I guess all of that was to be expected. It was a _school _after all.

"Hey, look at your schedule. I want to know what classes I'm not going to be a complete loner in." I picked up my schedule and laid it next to hers.

"History of the supernatural races, literature, and information technology. So, three in total."

"No. We have four. Look. We have chem. Together as well." She was right. That left loads of lessons on my own though. I really wanted to know what lessons the guys had.

Even Matt, who I barely knew, would be welcome company in this unknown place.

I settled down to literally read the information guide, Tori doing the same.

About three hours later, when we were both getting bored but feeling too nervous to wander around the school, there was a knock on the door. I opened it to find Corey, who was wearing an electric pink suit with a matching hat, and this one had a blue feather. (Seriously, where did this guy shop? It was highly eccentric.) He was carrying five plastic bags in each hand.

I let him in, and when I shut the door, he went and stood right in from of Tori before becoming humanly visible, laughing when it made her jump about a foot into the air.

"Nice to see you too." She muttered, but was smiling nonetheless. We were both happy just to be brought out of the tedium of sitting there in silence.

"I came bearing information and clothes." He put the bags onto the floor.

"Firstly, it was Byron and Derek who went to do all the shopping. Derek seems practical and Byron might as well be a stylist, so I think you both have at least something that's wearable."

We looked at each other and smirked; it couldn't be worse than when Margaret tried shopping for us, the malicious bitch.

"Thank you." We both replied- that solved out issue from earlier.

"So, what's the information?" Tori really was an impatient girl.

"Including Chloe, Matt and Miss Harris, there are eight necromancers. We registered Matt as only necromancer earlier, to fit in better. That means that there is only six people I have to run and hide from when I see their different glows. Because the necros are so low in numbers, it should be fairly easy for me to sneak around."

"How did you hide earlier?" I was actually kind of curious.

"Behind a tree." No real trick then. I laughed, imagining the feather from his hat sticking out from behind a tree branch.

"Nice. Hey, Corey, when are we going to see the rest of the guys? I want to compare timetables and stuff." Stuff. That basically meant that Tori actually _wanted_ to spend time with them. A month before and I bet she would have rather stuck pins in her eyes than admit to liking them. Except Simon. It really was brilliant that she had gotten over that before learning of her parentage. But Simon still didn't know. At least, I didn't think he knew.

"Oh, you'll probably see them at dinner. Also, there is a large area belonging to the school- fields and a forest and picnic areas. Well, fairly large. We can all meet up outside quite discreetly."

"Good." Tori nodded, and I smiled before thinking of the message to pass along.

"Can you tell Kit something for me? That he needs to tell Simon about Tori. He is now the only one who doesn't know." Tori gave me a grateful smile; clearly it had been plaguing her as well.

"I would, but when I left he was asking Simon to take a walk with him, so I think he just found out anyways. I'll pass on the message though, just in case."

"Thanks." Tori replied for me. She really was just so incredibly different from when this all began. Now she acted more human. Not that she wasn't to begin with. Just a little …indifferent to everything.

"No problem. I think I'm going to take my leave about now. The current class ends in 10 minutes, and it is easier to move around discreetly without large groups of people wondering around."

"Okay. We'll see you later, then." We both waved as he walked to the door, pausing for a second- I assumed it was to make himself 'invisible'-before exiting. I turned to Tori, who looked excited. I had a feeling that I didn't want to know why.

"We have an hour before dinner." She looked at the clock. "An hour and ten minutes before dinner. So let's play dress-up!" I stared at her. She truly was odd.

"I mean, take a look at what a combination of shopping by a gay man and a fashion impaired bloke is like."

"Sure." She had a point. I looked at the bags apprehensively.

"Firstly we need to find out whose is whose." That was sort of a no brainer, considering our size difference and all.

"That shouldn't be too difficult. I barely reach your shoulder."

"Point." She picked up a black sweater that would have fit two of me. Not that Tori was fat or anything. Proportionally she was a taller but thinner figure.

"These ones are mine then." Thank you, captain obvious, I thought, dragging the other set of bags towards me.

I tipped the bags upside down on my bed, and for a mass of fabrics, it was pleasantly surprising. I began to sort through it, and looking to my right, I saw tori doing similar.

Once separated into piles, I noticed that everything was plain but stylish. I also noticed that the boys had been smart enough to pick up underwear and socks as well, even two pairs of shoes each. They had actually bought everything necessary.

Since Derek knew absolutely squat about shopping, if all of these fit then Byron truly would be style queen. Or king. I wasn't going to stereotype because he was gay. Whichever he actually preferred.

I picked out a cute, clingy t-shirt with a v-neckline that was fairly high, black skinny jeans, and an electric blue bra, pants and socks, just to feel slightly colourful.

I headed towards the bathroom to change, before Tori's voice so rudely interrupted.

"I'm going to change in here while you're hogging the bathroom. So don't come back in until I give the all clear, okay?" I agreed, feeling immediately regretful. What if she was one of those people who took pretty much forever to change?

I pulled on the clothes fairly quickly, then hesitantly looked in the long mirror and the back of the door. Then blinked a few times. I was completely amazed. The black colours made me look pale, but not in the Goth way that my hair managed to. The clothes were stretchy, and with the jeans I looked slightly taller, more my age and a good deal more curvaceous than normal.

Well done Byron!

A minute of two of actually _admiring_ my appearance, and Tori knocked on the door.

"You can come out now." I did, and noticed that Byron had worked wonders on Tori too.

"Looking good." She smirked.

"You too." I smirked back. Looking at the clock, I noticed that we had wasted nearly an hour sorting through the clothing and then actually getting dressed. I picked up the map. Time to go and look for the dining hall.

A/N-

Guess who is currently the most shady character?

Thank you to the few who have actually reviewed so far!

R&R please peoples. 3


	5. Chapter 5 Normalcy and Schools

Disclaimer: I don't own this, if I did people would do stupid things like singing teletubbies whilst cross-dressing, and random people would die at regular intervals just for shits and giggles. It is a good thing I don't. I just own the idea for this sequel, and any extra characters. :)

A/N _chloe's handwriting. _**Derek's handwriting. **Tori's handwriting. *Simples*

**Chapter 5 – Normalcy and schools**

Chloe P.O.V

The dining room wasn't too hard to find. When the irritatingly shrill bell rang we basically got carried with the crowd, and before we knew it, we were in a massive hall that bore more than a little resemblance to Hogwarts. The ceiling was incredibly high, with long windows on both of the sides. The tables were wooden and stretched the whole length of the room.

The only thing that pointed towards 'school cafeteria' was that the food didn't appear on the tables. There were two serving stations at each end of the hall, with people queuing and both sides.

We got into the relatively small line, knowing that in a school, the number of people waiting for food could quadruple in mere minutes.

We both grabbed trays and cutlery.

As the queue was moving, I scanned the room for Derek and Simon. Not there yet. I then continued scanning the room for a large space for us all to sit, and more importantly, talk without having too many people in hearing distance. Bingo. In the corner, there was 14 seats without people in them, and if I knew schools, all we had to do was sit down and most people would avoid at least two of the seats either side of us, as well as across.

At the front of the queue, I placed a chicken and asparagus pie on my tray, and a slice of bakewell tart. I grabbed a bottle of water and was good to go. Tori did similar seeming to have noticed my plan.

"How about you bagsies those seats over there. (A/N I know bagsies isn't really a word) I'll grab us both a salad, then join you." I nodded and quickly found my way over there without tripping. Good to her word, Tori appeared there less than a moment later, and sat one seat across from me. In other words, she secured two other seats as well, for Simon and Matt. We didn't have to wait long. Where there is food there is Derek, though we could barely see his face due to the mountains for food piled onto his tray. He sat next to me, but Simon wasn't nearly so content with the seating.

"Budge along ,sis. I wanna see Matt's drawings, so can you move along one?" She nodded, and moved opposite me, looking slightly shell-shocked.

He had not-so-subtly, just informed us that he knew; he wasn't just getting slightly friendlier towards Tori

"Thanks." He sat next to her, dumping his bag on the seat for Matt. Everyone started eating, then Tori finally snapped out of it.

"Timetables." She put both of her hands out, and Derek and Simon obediently placed their schedules there. She looked through them, smiling whenever a lesson matched hers, then wordlessly handed them back.

They didn't question her; it was way too pointless; they'd find out pretty quickly anyway.

I ignored the whole time-table thing, thinking about lessons could be hazardous for my health, and turned straight to eating. The food was just about the frozen meals standard of pie; ignoring the fact that it was obviously freshly cooked, the ingredients were average, the pastry slightly soggy, but filling and warm. Clearly they didn't want us to die of food poisoning, but school food is never going to be restraint quality.

Compared to the junk food and lack of hot meals we'd previously been dealing with, it was positively fantastic. I was practically eating at Derek speed- something he would normally comment on.

I looked to my right, finding Derek eating at a human speed, staring morosely at his plate. I patted his arm, he looked up and smiled slightly, then went back to his food. I was going to try and find out what was wrong, but Matt appeared. Well, I looked front-ways and he was standing directly behind Simon. He had both arms around his neck, handing him a box of pencils and a sketch book. But id did look a _little _queer. In both the peculiar sense and the sexual orientation .

Particularly when Simon accepted the items, tilted his head up to smile at Matt, and hugged him back, looping his arms around his neck.

It was a momentary stance, but they really did look like a couple. Actually, they looked adorably, because they both looked really happy.

Seconds later, and Matt was sat down and eating whilst flipping through a Japanese manga, but they didn't go unnoticed. Looking slightly to the side, Tori seemed positively alarmed. Derek was looking at his food, most probably with a similar expression to myself; not knowing quite what to think. I nudged him slightly, questioning. Maybe Derek knew if it was odd or not, I had just never pictured Simon as a guy hug type of person, more the slap on the back type. Derek responded quite normally, turning to Simon in his usual manner.

"Hey bro, you got a piece of paper?" Simon handed one over, and Derek fished a pen out of his pocket.

After a time spent thinking about what Derek could possibly be up to, the paper appeared, half folded, on my leg. The folded bit had my name written on it with a swirly line underneath; to make the others believe, if they saw it, that we were just passing cutesy notes.

I looked inside to find a drawing, a realistic sketch of the pose from before. It was rushed, but good, well-proportioned and accurate. Except from the fact that both of the figures lacked any facial features. Either faces were a weak drawing point, he didn't want to waste time on it, or he thought it would be best in case they looked at it. The picture had a neat ring of 3D style arrows circling it, and a simple question mark at the top. I had no idea that Derek was so artistic. Probably because it would be completely in his nature to highlight Simon's ability and completely ignore his own. It was a shame, really, for his drawing was very good. Having been blessed with not a single ounce of drawing talent, I stuck to writing, and was completely in awe of both Derek and Simon.

Not wanting to ruin his picture, I wrote my reply as small as readably possible in the top left hand corner.

'_No idea. Is Simon usually that… __**friendly**__ with his friends?'_

Friendly with his friends. Not the best wording in the world, but for a lack of a better way to put it, I left it was it was, adding one more line to the bottom before slipping it back to him.

'_P.s, your drawing is awesome!'_

He smiled at my comment, eating his lunch with one hand and writing with the other, a skilful multi-tasking that I would never be able to manage without creating an outfit of chicken asparagus and gravy.

'**Not that I know of. And Thanks, Clo, but the people have no faces. I've been able to draw expressions well. **

**Tori used to like him, didn't she? We should get her opinion.'**

Now I knew why there weren't any faces. I couldn't help but send a response though.

'_You're asking __**Tori**_ _what __**she **__thinks? Are you feeling alright?'_

'**I'm fine. What's up with you; you're not normally this Sarky. 'Sides, I don't really pay attention to how Simon treats his friends. Only his enemies. Tori would know more, what with spying on him and all.'**

He had to get a jab at her in somewhere. Since I caused it, I didn't comment, but merely underlined the first time that Tori's name had been mentioned. I passed it across to Tori, lightly patting her leg to ensure that she would notice it. She shot me a questioning look, before going over the note like a pro, hiding it discreetly from Simon and Matt's sight. Clearly, someone used to have way to much spare time in class. That had to be a practiced habit.

I turned back to eat my bake well, truthfully the only sweet thing I had really enjoyed since we went on the run, and had it finished before I got the paper back.

Derek took my hand, pretending to study it as he read the note over my shoulder. Some serious ninja skills, us lot.

'I thought it was odd. They looked like a couple, but I thought Simon had a thing for Chloe, and used to dye his hair for chicks. Guess we'll have to pay more attention. Maybe we all just assumed and it really is nothing. I reckon the only reason you two care is because you thought they looked good together; neither of you are normally bothered about what other people get up to. And thanks for pointing all that out, Derek, he's my brother. On the same level as you, just a little less aggravating. You've put me off of my food. Anyway, I went off of him the time I had to spend a whole day alone with him, remember? Half way through and I used mentally begging for you and Chloe, if only to liven things up a little. Right now, that idea makes me nauseous. Though I thank you, for actually valuing my opinion, Derek. Chloe's disagreeing with you all the time is really changing you for the better.J and no, I've never seen him hug a guy, other than Kit and occasionally you. 

Wow, talk about writing an essay. Derek, who read faster than me, exchanged my hand for the paper the second he could see I was finished. Not that he wrote anything of actual worth, in my opinion.

'**Is gayness hereditary? I mean, for Matt. Dad's not gay. I don't think'**

I almost laughed, and was covering my smirk as I added yet another question mark and forwarded it to Tori. Who smirked, but actually seemed to be considering it, writing another essay style response to what I had thought to be a silly question, even having to turn the paper over for more room.

Especially from Derek, who was supposed to be the smart one.

'It's not inherited, but could have been caused by Corey. It's an environmental factor, some people would say gayness is a process of malim'printing. You know, like when you see a chicken that thinks it's a dog, because that was the first thing it saw when it hatched from the egg. Basically the idea only comes about because they've seen other people who were gay- most wouldn't think about it at all or even consider the idea had someone else not thought of it first. So it started with a few people, then the idea was passed on. 'course, it's not exactly like that, but in simple terms, yeah. As mean as it sounds, sex is meant to be reproductive, so it is not normal to be gay. Not that they can help it though, whatever floats your boat and all. So, anyway, I guess that Corey and Byron, could have affected Matt's way of thinking- if he had grown up with homophobes, then it might have been far less likely for him to be gay. (Then again, we still don't know, and extremes can drive others towards opposite extremes anyway.) J

That girl was a lot smarter than I had originally thought, even after learning of her amazing skills when it came to computers. It made sense to me, but I wouldn't know anything otherwise anyways, so I passed it along to Derek, , who actually seemed impressed. He scribbled a fast reply, then sent it back.

'**ACE. To be honest, I don't really know much about it, but that sounds about right. We still don't know it either of them are, though. Tori, why do you know so much about it?'**

At this point, I was thinking that maybe we should converse on paper more often; no-one was arguing and all of us seemed to like English enough to write coherent and at least vaguely literate sentences without annoying text speak. Apart from smiley faces, which added character without leaving you confused for a minute before you realise what they are trying to say.

(A/N Apologies everyone, but I detest text speak, particularly from people who actually say TBH or LOL. Particularly LOL. If I am really laughing, I tend to find it impossible to say anything at all. Personal pet hate, that's all.)

'You seem to be surprised. I researched it for school- some homophobes kept yelling at Jay, my best friend, when they found out he had a boyfriend. I gave them an earful, and everything went back to normal. He was very popular before they found out, so when most of them thought back to how they behaved before, most of them settled back to an ordinary routine, and the others dared not say anything for fear of losing any mutual friends. We need evidence before we can call them gay, anyways. They might not like us assuming about them.

An unusually mature and sensible response, I couldn't help but think. Where did the real Derek and normal Tori go? It was very nice, but a little unnerving. Either they were still acclimatizing, or they were finally starting to get along. Many clichés about togetherness came to mind, and stopped me from shouting at the both of them. It would give away our notes anyway, I decided.

I nodded at Tori, and smiled, and she did likewise. Taking the conversation to over, I handed he note over to Derek who gave a subtle nod towards her before he crumpled up the note and crammed it into his pocket.

And, I glanced up to see Simon looking at us oddly. Maybe we weren't as subtle as I had first thought.

"What's up with you guys? You'd normally be killing each other by now. You're all sitting there looking like your goldfish died."

"I don't have a goldfish." The unanimous, succinct response stolen from Role Models. Apparently, all three of us had seen it.

It threw Simon off board though, as Tori and I collapsed laughing, Derek smirked, and milliseconds later, Matt's laughter joined the group.

In the end, he smiled too, and dismissed us as simply being strange.

*** Insert page break here ***

I awoke to an alarm clock ringing. The sole unholy noise on this planet. If there was one thing I would swear at and curse the existence of, it would be the invention of the alarm clock. Although, if I'm totally honest, I set the alarm clock to wake me up, so it's only doing its job.

Poor thing, it must feel so hated.

Then, magically, the sound stopped. I breathed a sigh of happiness. Which was swiftly followed by a muffled scream as Tori lightly hit me over the head with a pair of pillows. I half-heartedly swung one back at her, then dragged myself into a sitting position.

"Thanks Tori, I'm up now." I mumbled, shuffling out of bed in an attempt to prolong the amount of time spent in my warm duvet. As a result, it ended up half on the floor.

"I'm here to help." was a cheery but a little sarcastic response.

I loudly shut the door, and 10 minutes later, was ready to face the day. Annoyance apparently makes me shower faster than usual. I did not dry my hair, only loosely towelled it; it was short enough to dry on its own.

"You can't stay grumpy at me, Chloe. We have first lesson Lit."

"I could, it would just make the hour more awkward for the both of us."

"Exactly why you wont. You'll just end up stuttering if people you don't know try and talk. You practically shake if they so much as look at you."

"Yeah, I'll stick with you, just not entirely for my benefit. If I leave you alone, you might go find a witch to fight in a test of power or something."

"Don't be snarky, Chloe. That's only second reasoning anyway, just to back up your first without reminding us both that we know no-one."

"I'm used to moving schools, but I'm guessing you're not. I learnt how to blend a while ago."

"Good, you can teach me." I didn't respond to that. I somehow doubted that Tori would ever blend in with the crowd.

She opened a cute black bag- one big enough to actually hold her school equipment, unlike the tiny purses that I had seen some of the girls carrying, the type that will barely hold lip-gloss and their timetables. (Then again, Tori was a lot more practical than I had originally thought. Funny, almost everything I had thought about her was completely wrong.)

And… she pulled out a large bag of Special K bites. That made me hungry.

"I'll agree to help if you share." She extended her arm towards me, and the entire bag was demolished in what had to be a record speed.

Less than five minutes after we finished, the bell rang, a warning for most students that they had 5 minutes to get to class, but for us, it was a reminder that we hadn't the slightest clue where we were going. Thank goodness for the invention of the map. And the fact that we both possessed vaguely sufficient skills at reading one.

We arrived at the room a little early, for everyone was still standing outside in the average teenagers version of an orderly line. The teacher had yet to arrive, and so a loud babble of voices echoed, ringing my ears slightly. It had taken a very short time to become unaccustomed to the noise of school, and I was having to re-learn it. And I had never liked the crowds at all.

From Tori's silence, I guessed she was having similar trouble with it. Either that, or she was reminiscing on a time where she was highly popular, and the cacophonous noise was created by her and her large assortment of friends.

To make things worse, to my immediate left, a girl shrieked, then giggled, and I was reminded of every school-horror-trash movie I had ever seen. The type where she would keep on like that for a while, until it came to point where it wasn't her friend of boyfriend standing behind her, and all sound would momentarily cut out, in preparation for the main part of the movie.

Lacking this drama, instead of a kidnapping, murder or strange vanishing, the teacher took that moment to appear, and when he did, it silenced the group, though more gradually than a movie would bother with.

A/N Wow, long chapter…though I haven't updated in forever so it sort of called for it. Review please, but no anti-gay shit. Or pro gay shit that disapproves of my explanations, that is only one view point, and I'm not saying that anything is right or wrong, merely telling a story. Something interesting will actually happen in the next chapter, and I will _try _to get it up in the next week. Also *shameless self promotion* I will be picking up on The Ending again in the next few days. :)

I love anyone who still reads this after all this time! hugs!


	6. Alice

**(Disclaimer: Sadly, I still do not own Darkest Powers.)**

**A/N: Took more than a week. However, it was my longest chapter ever, so excuse! **

**Tales of a Darker Power Chapter 6 - Alice.**

The students all shuffled rapidly into the room, glaring at the middle-aged, tired looking teacher on their way in.

'Shuffled rapidly' was such an oxymoron, but that was how the students attempt to show reluctance when the teacher turns up incredibly late and they just want to be done with the lesson.

Tori and I were the last ones into the class, and as is clichéd and predictable, the only pair of seats left was at the very front, to the side. To close to the teacher for most students, but at an odd angle for any of the 'goody-goody' people. I knew all too well.

The only good thing about this spot in a room was that one could easily sit and be ignored by others, even those sat opposite, which filled mine and Tori's only requirements anyway.

After a short register, where, rather unusually, we had already been entered in alphabetically, the man literally threw two bright green A4 exercise at us, muttered reluctantly that our class number was 103 and his name was Mr Donovan, then departed to an old chalk board at the side of the room.

I turned to the first page, added the date, and looked around to see everyone writing. Strange, not a single person was talking, and absolutely everyone seemed to know what they were doing. It was actually rather innerving.

I got eye-contact with a pale girl with thick dark brown hair and a long fringe. She smiled slightly, nodded her head to the chalkboard and resumed writing,

I glanced at it before doing a comic book style double-take. The whole board was filled with instructions, and Mr Donovan was already back at his desk, feet propped up on top of a pile of books, reading a thick novel in some obscure language that I hadn't a hope of understanding.

I looked back at the girl to thank her, but she was entirely engrossed in her work. I then turned to Tori, who was doing a rather amazing job of chipping at her nails.

I subtly nudged her in the direction of the board before rushing to attack the enormous list of tasks.

I worked solidly until finished, ending with 12 pages and 5 minutes to spare. I watched Tori working, frantically scribbling responses. It was rather peculiar watching her concentrating, possessing a determined air to finish it. At Lyle, I hadn't really seen her working, and though it was clear she possessed a good work ethic from Andrew's safe house, I hadn't expected her to be quite so studious.

1 minute before the bell went, the teacher placed a tray with our class number written on at the centre of the middle table, grabbed his bag, and left the room.

The rest of the class treated this as normal, placing their books in the provided tray in time for the bell.

Tori and I duplicated the actions of the others, and found that the second the bell rang, the door sprung open, and everyone left.

Spell-locked, I guessed. Little else could keep a class in a room longer than the teacher.

"So, Chloe, how did you know what to do?" Tori demanded within the first step out of the door. "That guy gave me the creeps. I've never before seen a teacher who didn't actually tell you hat to do. It was really odd."

"The girl opposite us pointed it out to me. Y'know, the pale girl with a fringe over her eyes."

Tori stared blankly at me, for several long seconds, until a realisation registered in the backs of her eyes. She gave me the classic Tori smirk.

"Ghost ,Chloe. I was wandering why we hadn't sat there, row empty, all but one. Mystery solved."

Entire empty row? No, Tori said all but one. Three ghosts. And I hadn't had the faintest clue, they had just blended in like all other kids.

Funny thing is, at least two of them I had seen physically writing, and all of them looked like they were doing the work. Then again, it was a school for supernatural's. Maybe it catered for the dead, too. But I couldn't possibly imagine why they would need any sort of qualifications, so why make them go to school at all? It didn't make any sense.

I pushed the matter to the back of my head, murmured a 'guess so' to Tori, and set about in finding my next class.

The lesson was a variable, and there was only 7 of us in the class, myself and Matt included. Two of these were the girls from earlier, and the one had helped me in English waved lightly as I entered the room.

I gave out a slight smile her way, hiding my nerves and confusion, and went to stand next to Matt.

He seemed like the most and best help I would be able to get, so while everyone was still settling on the wooden table that were situated to the back of the practice ground, I nudged him, then subtly jerked my head to indicate towards the girls.

"Matt, what can you tell me about these two? Slightly vague, but I had no idea as to what the extent of his powers were.

He glanced at them for approximately half a minute, then turned to me, expression confident.

"Ghosts. Well, you already knew that part, otherwise you wouldn't be asking me. Both telekinetic half-demons, volo, to be precise."

That made sense. I should have thought of all of this sooner, I recalled clearly seeing them writing, and though I hadn't a clear view of the other girls exercise book, I was pretty positive that she had been writing too.

"Why d'you need to know, anyway Chloe? Did one of them do something suspicious?"

He was starting to sound like Derek. Overly wary, though I was way past the point of learning that caution could be a good thing.

"Oh, nothing really. I saw them both writing in English, but Tori didn't see them at all. Curiosity, I guess. I thought that maybe this school also taught ghosts, but I didn't really get what the point would be."

"Tradition. The cabals used o hire telekinetic ghosts via necromancers whenever they need to get something done undetected. Usually for theft, or information gathering."

"Um. Okay. So why would they be here?" Maybe I was being a little slow, but I still didn't get it. At all.

"Training. Telekinesis is a practised skill. _And_ cabals have certain rules, contracts, orders or conduct ect, and it is best to be aware of what will keep you alive. Cabals are not always the friendliest of employers.

They thought it was a duty to educate back when cabals still hired them and though they don't anymore, key knowledge is still vital. Non-cabal necromancers may still summon them, you know that. They are not cut off from the world."

Made sense. After all, I wasn't the only person who could raise the dead, and I certainly didn't have the worst of intentions.

There were people out there who wished for armies of the dead to do their bidding. (Not that I looked down on it quite as much anymore. In a moment of Panic, I could and have raised any body in sight.)

At least these half demons had the ability to fight back. I liked the idea of helping them even though I didn't understand how it could work; a lot of people in school still could not see them.

"How does this even work? I'm guessing that the majority of teachers wouldn't have the slightest clue as to whether they were here or not."

"A tell of sorts. Look." He pointed, and this time I observed rather than saw. One of then was holding a phone, the other a silver pen."

Anyone one else would just see the phone and the pen. It would constantly allow people to see where they were.

But Tori hadn't noticed anything at all. Which either meant that she hadn't been paying attention, or their powers were a bit broader in range than originally assumed.

If that was the case, then all of my knowledge and Matt's explanations would be pointless, useless.

It could mean that we were in danger after all.

Our lesson consisted of control, a supernatural sparring lesson, playing entirely through our minds.

We split into pairs, one necromancer to one telekinetic ghost. Except that there was two ghosts, 5 necromancers, and a teacher.

Who had apparently been a child prodigy, and by the age of 46 (which he had easily told myself and Matt in his brief explanation of the class- clearly his age did not bother him) had developed his telekinetic powers to almost as high a level as matt's.

Apparently, he was a half demon hybrid, though I hadn't really the slightest clue what of. I knew he could not see the two ghosts, as when addressing them, he didn't look at a specific point, more casually looked around the general area where they would be standing. He taught the lesson as there was not a single necromancer teacher available for our specific lesson time, so most lessons he was trained to teach. Any lesson that specifically required a necromancer would be done via lesson switching with other classes.

He stated that as it was done in the mind, it either need to be theoretically taught, or was something he could do anyway, so it wasn't really much of a problem, and lesson switches would be a very rare occurrence.

I nodded along, as did Matt, who looked slightly impressed by the thin, tanned man.

The two ghosts were already paired with two necromancers, I instinctively stood closer to Matt, and the teacher walked off to help an obscenely tall guy with long hair.

The aim of the exercise was simple. Always be the one in control. Like when I had put a ghost back into their body, the aim was to control a person, ghosts or not, by entering the others brain and successfully ordering them to do something without them being able to retaliate.

We started by taking turns doing the attacking, then it became a test of speed to attack.

It seemed that I was really far ahead of Matt, and by the time we took a small break I was winning twelve to four. Then the teacher pointed out that as Matt could be optionally real live flesh and blood, when controlling his mind it was similar to just controlling a ghost, which was easiest for a necromancer.

In other words, he was at a disadvantage. But we were not the only mismatched pair; in fact, someone from every pair was at a disadvantage.

So, Mr Homes decided that we would each work with three different people. As it was a two hour lesson, we had plenty of time, and that way everyone should be able to learn something equally.

I was to be against Mr Homes second, and the part of me that was eager to do well, that wanted to be really good at something, reared its head.

I knew that despite wanting to do well, I had to keep my powers in check, which meant that I had to realise when to _stop _trying. The teacher was clearly unaware of my past accidental achievements, or perhaps they didn't bother him, as I felt a twinge in my head after I had taken a step towards him, already attacking. Maybe he thought that so long as I lost, it wouldn't matter. And it would be obvious to assume that the winner would be him.

However, him winning would not actually stop the raising of the dead; I did it without conscious thought. I knew that commands did not necessarily correspond with the responses.

I knew that the quicker the exercise was finished, the less chance I had of raising something. So I had two choices. Either not to use any power at all, which is what Derek would probably suggest. However, Mr Homes would be able to tell. So I was left with the other option.

Powers be damned, I couldn't leave it to chance. The more power I used, the quicker I could end it, and less time meant less chance.

It was almost automatic. Perhaps a little over a second after I had felt the first twinge, my brain had already run through these options and was mentally pushing, and he stumbled backwards with the force. I did so again, harder, though he was no longer in my head. I only felt slightly bad as he almost hit the ground, as this action was my course for distraction.

Whilst he was steadying his feet, I closed my mind, picturing a barrier around me. I simultaneously went on the offensive, and sent my order slightly before I had full contact, ensuring that he would get the instructions the exact moment he would begin to feel the contact.

It worked. As relevant to the purpose of this exercise, he picked up a rock from the ground and threw it at the dummy that was so eloquently labelled as 'bad guy'.

Too late, he tried to fight it, and the failed force dislocated his shoulder. I winced, but his movement had not stopped my control, and he involuntarily threw the rock hard enough to disconnect the head of the dummy.

This achieved, I immediately ceased the contact, but kept my mind blocked, in case he tried to attack again.

I glanced around, and everyone was staring at me as if I had grown an extra head or two.

Mr Homes, however, was staring at me, and looked ecstatic, even when a short woman arrived and popped his shoulder back into place. It was actually rather unnerving, and I couldn't help but shrink back a little.

No-one moved until after the woman had left, and the second she did, Mr Homes burst out laughing.

"Miss Saunders, I quite happily concede defeat. You can take your shield down now."

How could he even tell? Confused, I didn't do so, and by the time I actually was, he stopped me.

"Actually, could you put your block back to full power a minute, Chloe? I want to see just how powerful it is."

Again, how did he know I was taking it down? Everyone was still staring, and I was getting increasingly nervous.

I did as he asked, and was confused as he reached a hand out towards me.

Less than a meter away, he seemed to need a use an enormous amount of effort to move his hand at all.

He only managed another centimetre at most, then there was a sharp spark against his fingers, sending him backwards.

I felt a twinge in my head, but hadn't needed to order it at all.

As long as the barrier was up, it seemed to be automatic.

"Bloody Hell." I had never heard a teacher actively swear in front of me before. Of course, I had heard them whilst they were talking to other teachers, and maybe a couple of times accidentally.

"W-what?" I was even stuttering. Great. I wanted to know what was wrong, I wanted everyone to stop staring.

"Chloe, did you know that you are blue?" Matt's voice was quiet, but I could hear the amazement in his voice, and maybe, a little fear?

No, that couldn't be it. The only thing less frightening than me was a fluffy, _alive _bunny rabbit. Or not, Even they had sharp teeth.

I lifted my hand to my face, and almost jumped in shock. I was literally blue.

Worried, I stopped my defence completely, observing as my hand faded back to my usual pale tone.

The others took a collective gasp of relief, and it sent chills down my spine. I looked at our teacher, hoping for an explanation.

"Bloody amazing. Saunders, you have to be the most powerful necromancer I have ever met. I've seen powerful, but enough energy to create a visible change, enough that you get electrical spark from just under a meter away? Fantastic!"

He clapped his hands enthusiastically, staring like I was a science experiment. Annoying, that was.

His look reminded me of that of Tori's mother, and I revised my original humorous opinion of him. He was now on a completely different end of the spectrum.

I glared slightly, without intention, but it seemed to snap him back to the present. More or less.

"Alice. You are to go against Chloe. You are allowed to attack."

There was a collective gasp of shock, and the helpful girl from English stepped forward.

People were holding their breath in anticipation, except Matt, whose confused expression mirrored my own.

"Alice's attack is near lethal. No-one's ever seen anyone resist against it. Everything she does is in the mind, but she can make it painful, and she is the best ever."

The quiet voice came from the tall boy from before. Unlike the others he seemed worried, not excited. I immediately liked him; I was so worried myself that I was grateful to his own concern.

Alice wasn't remotely anxious. She was smirking, proud, with a predatory gleam. At first glance, I would not have thought her capable of such an expression.

The most I could say for her was that she was definitely confident.

"Shall we, Chloe?"

She lifted her head, very slightly, and in a rush of power, she turned red.

I reacted, put up a block before she had finished turning an alarming crimson. Yes, I was behind her on timing, but at this point, it wasn't a test of speed. It was power, and more was needed to attack than to block.

with psychological games, you were as safe as you wanted to be. Not quite true, but slightly reassuring. Stubbornness would help, too.

I decided that I would be the one to change the game, turn it into a test of speed when I was completely prepared. And when playing an ace, exceptions could be made, and I need all the speed and power I could harness in such a short time.

One massive push of power could either make me win or lose, but consequences faded into the back of my mind, and I decided that it would be a good idea to try.

I mentally shoved all the power I could straight at her, sending a chronological list of commands with it.

I felt the air rushing around me in waves, heard an impossible crackle of electricity, and suddenly everything I say was tinged in purple.

The second I tried this, my intentions were given away, and she duplicated my method, everything turning a brighter purple.

I felt myself hitting a barrier, and simultaneously felt her do identical. She growled, glaring, and we both knew that the winner would be whoever could sustain it for the longest.

We both reached for our subconsciously hidden reserves, I saw the angry white sparks as we clashed.

The ground began to shake, a crack ,appearing exactly halfway between us.

_And the shades of a thousand dead answered…_

_Armies of the dead for you to command…_

_I shuddered, mentally stumbling, but it didn't give her any loophole or advantage. I had stopped sending actual commands, saving power until I had a way to get to her, and she must have done the same. _

_We were locked in a stalemate, neither willing or able to give in. I was too scared to. Lord knew what her commands had been, lethal as she was known to be._

A/N: should only be a couple of chapters left! Thank you to all who have reviewed up until now, you are all babes !


	7. Alice pt2

**(Disclaimer: I have not yet obtained the magic that is ownership of Darkest Powers… *Sob*. Oh, And I do not profit from any of this.)**

**A/N- I think this is all starting to sound like Harry Potter. Oh, well. I tried. Apologies for the appalling typos in the last chapter; I've only just noticed.**

**Tales of a Darker Power Chapter 7- Alice part two**

_**Previously: **__We were locked in a stalemate, neither willing or able to give in. I was too scared to. Lord knew what her commands had been, lethal as she was known to be._

Our gazes locked, we were both frozen, completely unmoving, our pictures cast in a sinister crackling violet.

Then, slowly and triumphantly, she smirked. The same evil contorting of her features as earlier; she had again gained confidence.

I saw her left hand jerk slightly towards me, a tell of sorts, that tacitly commanded an invisible force. I almost braced my self, but stayed still, on edge.

Moments passed, and I felt nothing. I relaxed a little, a motion that she noted, the smirk slipping away from her face like wax from a candle.

Her hand moved again, a short, harsh movement. But, as before, nothing changed.

Her audible growl suddenly became the only thing that was remotely threatening about her.

That wasn't because I was foolishly overconfident, but because I could see the red fading, her glow diminishing slightly; she was losing power.

I strained to add that little bit more force- force that I didn't really have-, pushing on her mental barrier, and felt it shift just slightly.

It was enough. She panicked, and shut off her attack completely, putting all she had back into defending, but it was too late.

She returned to her normal colour, completely drained.

I had won.

I was not remotely shocked by what happened next. She jumped at me, graceful, but completely uncontrolled, her arms flailing a little wildly in her attempt to scratch me.

What I was unprepared for, and a little scared by, was my reaction.

It was instinctive, the way I raised my arm slightly, shifting to the left. The movement took me away from where she could have made contact. Blocking I wasn't shocked by, other than the fact that I could actually do it.

Whilst my right arm had come up to block, my left had swung around, and caught the side of her jaw solidly. She fell back in pain, and I immediately felt sorry.

Not for her, that was the worst part. I thought that she more than deserved it. I felt terrible for myself, that after everything I actually punched someone in a _school. _I felt like a horrible person for hitting someone, no matter how bad. But I didn't care that I hit her as a person.

I finally understood how Derek must have felt with those yobs who were starting on Simon. I felt a wave of understanding, but I still did not care that she was holding her jaw awkwardly, shoulders shaking from shock. I just cared that I was the one to do it.

I didn't even feel anything for her when the medic arrived again, and informed her that she had dislocated her jaw. I actually felt proud then. That worried me even more. I was, however, slightly amazing that she could tell that a jaw was dislocated when she was completely unable to touch it.

I didn't have the natural force to break her jaw, but I had kept hold of the power that had previously been my attack.

I had subconsciously taken down my defence when she leapt; had I _wanted _her to attack me?

That thought made me go cold.

I watched on emotionally as she was instructed on how to click it back into place, and she did so with an audible snap, but it did not make me jump or cringe in the way that it might have done a mere few weeks before.

I stayed frozen, though through the corner of my eyes I could plainly see others flinch, Matt included.

And every last one of them looked afraid of me.

It took a lot longer than it should have to realise why.

Despite supposedly being a ghost, she had attacked, and I had managed to hit her. Hard.

I was suddenly incredibly confused, and it was even more puzzling that the others were merely scared.

Did they all know of something that I did not?

Even Matt looked very frightened, uneasy. How could he know anything? We had hardly been here long.

Mr Homes called the end of the lesson, though it was 15 minutes too early, and I rushed ahead in a state of slight panic, needing to find Derek.

I looked back as I pushed through the door, and noticed that Mr Homes was still watching me, proud smirk in place.

He was in the library, already doing independent study. That didn't really surprise me, but for the fact that his lesson had already ended; it had taken over 15 minutes to find him.

"Would've thought you'd be eating." I had the satisfaction of watching him stiffen slightly in surprise, the closest I had ever gotten to startling him. It was true as well, I was actually going to try the cafeteria next; the library had just happened to be on the way there.

"Nope. Something hap- Are you alright?" He frowned anxiously, quickly moving to bend to my level. Strange, I hadn't thought that anything had seemed amiss.

To me, it was almost like nothing had occurred at all.

"I'm fine. What happened to you?" My voice sounded urgent and slightly queerly forceful to my own ears, but it was only for the fact that I thought the two events could be linked.

"No, Chloe. Your eyes turned _purple. _What did you do?" He appeared concerned, not angry, and unlike past conversations, his question did not seem like an order.

So I told him everything. Expect for physically punching the girl, because that would not serve to nay purpose other than to make him think I had gone completely psychotic. Realisation dawned halfway through my explanation, and I vaguely wondered as to what exactly I had yet to know.

"You should just be happy that you haven't got red eyes." He murmured as soon as I had finished. He said it light-heartedly, but to me we both seemed a little tense.

"Huh?" Sometimes I seemed so incredibly intelligent.

"It seems to me that your eyes are changing similarly to your necklace." Oh.

"Right. So, what were you researching before I so rudely interrupted?"

He turned to the computer, wiggled the mouse, and clicked on a tab. 'werewolf habits.'

"Why?" Another of my brilliant questions.

"We had to do a sparring session." He stated this with finality, like all had been explained.

"And…?" I gasped in horror. "You weren't hurt ,were you?"

He laughed. Actually laughed. Damn my over-active imagination. He seemed to find the very idea of himself being harmed amusing.

"No, Chloe, nothing like that. There's absolutely nothing wrong with the other wolves, they didn't do anything. They seem… decent." He ended with a slightly surprised tone, and I decided that he had naturally assumed that he would hate them.

"Then, did you hurt one of them?" I attempted to keep sorrow and pity from my voice, for I did feel sorry if her had done so. I knew how hard he sometimes had to try simple to avoid killing an attacker. Like the girl in the alleyway. He had only just managed to stop then. And I had shouted pretty damn loud. I knew he wouldn't want such a crappy reaction from me. So I tried to say it lightly, casually, and failed miserably, which made me worry slightly as to how he would respond.

"Nope. Chloe, you have such an amazing imagination." He smiled, assuring me that he was completely okay. I felt myself smile in response, and he reached for my hand, softly capturing it in his own large one.

"No, I'm just different from them, and I wondered whether I had done something wrong, or something had happened, or anything. You see, all of the others, they change into wolves to fight. It is meant to be the same as changing out of necessity or fear, or stress- instinctive. But I don't. I know I change out of stress and fear, we found that out the night we all escaped. But I didn't in the lesson."

"You sparred as a human?" wow, that was actually strangely impressive. We both had already known how difficult that would be. Liam and Raymond provided more than enough of a comparison.

"All but one. As the newbie, coach thought that it would be best to see where I was in the class. He started with the lowest ranking fighter, and worked up to the best."

He breathed, deep on thought. I was not sure of what was actually bothering him. He must have been very good, otherwise he would not have ended up sparring against all of them.

"I won every time, without even wanting to change, the last being the exception. It was weird actually. I was slightly unnerved by how nice they all were about it. Each changed back afterwards, and none of them commented on how strange I was. A couple of them even shook my hand.

They advised me to change before I fought Mike, so I did. They seemed to know what was best. I did it voluntarily, and I won. But I point I, the rest of them do it automatically."

"I thought it could have been the Edison group experiments."

So that was it. He had actually talked himself into thinking he was defective.

No, he was just Derek. He was special, gifted. He should have accepted that a long time ago. And I had a feeling that I knew exactly why he didn't change, and that it was far more obvious an answer than he was looking for.

"Have you considered that you didn't change because you can actually think rationally? Maybe the others all got nervous and stressed because they had to fight, and you concentrated on how you could actually win. You knew how to handle it better."

He laughed, letting go of my hand, only to wrap both of his arms around me in a tight hug. His laugh got to me in a way that it shouldn't have. I felt like crying, It was more than a little relieved, and so genuinely happy, that I couldn't help but wonder how he felt the majority of the time.

"You're so smart sometimes, Chloe. I hope you're right. It's exactly what the website said, anyhow. That some werewolves just have more control."

He laughed again. I couldn't help but join in, the sound compelling me to laugh with him.

"Guess that means we're both odd." I laughed a little longer, then stood up as straight as I could to press a soft kiss to his cheek before pulling back.

"Lunch?"

"Starving." We headed to the cafeteria, both in much higher spirits than we had been previously.

**A/N: A lot shorter than previous chapters, but this was really just the last bit of chapter six, that I hadn't typed up before. R&R **


	8. Three Figures

**Chapter Eight- Three figures. **

After lunch, we both had a free study session. Me and Derek did not yet have the massive piles of work that the other kids did, so we decided to go for a walk.

As usual, Tori and Simon had the good sense not to come with us.

Tori had already found some other techsperts (a combination of the words technology and experts, apparently), and was keen to go and compare abilities and also look at some of the higher course-work.

Simon and Matt vanished off with only a cheerful 'see you later', telling no-one where they were going or what they were doing.

Derek and I waited until they were all out of sight before leaving our seats and heading for the nearest exit.

Our walking routine was a very simple one. Just wander around in near silence until we found a good spot to stop. Yes, the majority of the time was spent doing more kissing than walking, but the concept wasn't about that.

It was just time where we were calm, and feeling safe, and _together. _

We walked around the grounds then into the forest that was situated directly to the left of the school.

It was thick, but had clear pathways; it needed to be simply for the wolves to find places to change, I supposed.

We strolled, hand-in-hand, a good mile into the forest, until we came to a bench.

About to sit, we both paused as we heard voices, clear and understandable, though the people must have been behind a thick set of trees.

"We have to move quickly, Daniel. _Before _they gather allies."

"Don't be foolish. No-one is as stupid as you seem to think. When the wolf comes running, the sheep flock together. Nothing we can do to stop that."

"Oh do shut up, both of you. You know what needs to be done."

I recognised two of the voices. Too well, and it worried me more than slightly; I had been correct in my evaluation of two people earlier. I couldn't help but whisper to Derek; checking how much he had heard.

"How many people can you hear?"

"Three." I gave him my most obviously confused look, but did not continue; they had started speaking again.

"It's very simple. Stick to the original plan. We just need to construct another separate one for these other people.

They must not have the necro or the wolf in this fight. None of us have come across the others, but Josh says the witch is very powerful."

"That's another seven we have to do away with." Alice was whingeing, and I could almost hear her sigh of the word _effort._

I turned back to Derek, who had his 'serious danger' face back in place.

We heard shuffling, leaves moving, and a combination of several peoples' footsteps.

We did not stay to hear anything else.

*_* Break*_*

Back on the main school grounds, we went back to walking very slowly in an attempt to blend in. We were whispering ideas for fear of being heard, but figured it okay as other couples murmured to one another anyway.

The first actual conclusion we cam to was that we needed to get everyone together; we had been through this enough times to know the drill.

Splitting up seemed efficient, but as Derek pointed out, meant that we could end up with two separate groups, and would have no knowledge of the other's progress. Though it appeared slower, we stuck together.

Tori was the easiest to find, sat in the largest IT room, apparently already in the final stages of the coding unit. I nodded along, and let Derek talk. At least he had the faintest clue of what she was on about.

Then Kit, Corey and Byron. (A/N- You've probably forgotten about him by now :/)

They were all sat outside, on a picnic bench, and sadly, it looked like they were doing some sort of grading.

They all seemed more than happy about the interruption, and happily joined our merry band. _or not. _They were all overtly concerned that we couldn't find Simon and Matt, but that is the job of the parent, I reasoned.

Neither of them were in their room, which made it a lot more difficult than it could have been. We traipsed around for a good twenty minutes, before passing a staircase, which we had already passed at least three times.

This time, I looked at the space under the stairs, and it would be a lie to say that I wasn't a _little _surprised.

There, standing under the stairs, limbs entwined together and kissing like the world was about to end, was Simon and Matt. The others all continued walking, but I grabbed Derek's arm as he was about to reach the stairs, and he allowed me to pull him back.

Then his jaw dropped in a fairly cartoon-like way, and everyone else finally noticed.

We stood for only a few seconds, before Tori fake coughed rather loudly.

They sprang apart, Matt nearly banging his head on the slope of the stairs.

"Okay, this can be discussed later. We will even make it sufficiently awkward and embarrassing and everything. But right now, we have a problem."

Derek composed himself, pretending nothing had happened, and set off looking for a good location of explain, dragging me with him by the hand.

We found a study room that was very nearly empty, and Derek relayed everything that we had heard. We also explained both of our lessons (and this time I included the punching of the face), and stated trying to piece everything together, whilst the others stared in a dumb-struck and still processing kind of way.

After all, we had escaped, only to have apparently walked into a trap that wasn't meant for us. It was fairly depressing.

"I think I can be of help." A short blond woman entered the room.

A/N- Tada! I am nearly close to finished this, but was slightly disheartened by the lack of reviews for the last chapter *sob*. Please review!


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